a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetic head slider and its manufacture, and more particularly to a magnetic head slider and its manufacture capable of preventing accidental breakage of the head and variation of the flying characteristics of a slider.
b) Description of the Related Art
As shown in FIG. 2A, a slider 10 having magnetic heads is supported by a suspension 12 over a magnetic disk 14 loaded in a hard disk drive. As the magnetic disk 14 rotates, the slider 10 flies over the disk 14 to record information in the disk 14 or reproduce it from the disk 14. If an external shock is applied to the flying slider 10, the position of the slider 10 changes.
As shown in FIG. 2B, if the slider 10 together with the suspension 12 jmps up from the disk 14 by external shock, it lands thereafter onto the disk 14 by reaction as shown in FIG. 2C. In this case, the magnetic head slaps the surface of the disk 14. This head slap may cause damages of the disk surface or breakages of the slider.
In order to avoid surface damages of the disk 14 and breakages of the slider 10, a countermeasure as illustrated in FIGS. 3A and 3B has been used. FIG. 3A is a bottom view of a slider, and FIG. 3B is a cross sectional view taken along line IIIB--IIIB in FIG. 3A. Air bearing surfaces (ABSs) 18 and 20 of rails formed on a disk facing plane 16 of the slider are chamfered and rounded at their entire peripheries 28 to form chamfered portions 22. These chamfered portions 22 relax local impact to be applied to the surface of the disk 14 when head slap occurs, to thereby prevent surface damages of the disk 14 and breakages of the slider 10. In contrast outermost edges 29 of the slider 10 are not chamfered at all.
An edge blend method has been used as a method of forming chamfered portions. As shown in FIG. 4, an abrasive tape 24 is softly pushed against ABSs 18 and 20 of the slider 10 and the whole surfaces 28 of ABSs 18 and 20 are rubbed to form the chamfered portions 22.